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Commentary

Talk About Strange Things: New Coke Coming Back For Guest Spot

In a new twist on making lemonade out of a lemon, Coca-Cola is reviving New Coke, one of the biggest bombs in marketing history, with a bit of fanfare. But then, quicker than you can say “the best-tasting cola in the history of … ever,” it will be gone again.

“‘Stranger
Things’ season 3 is coming to Netflix this July 4, and it’s going to be set in the year 1985. As a period detail, the show is going to make reference to New Coke, a disastrous 1980s effort
from Coca-Cola to update its namesake drink. For those not old enough to remember, New Coke was met with a massive consumer backlash and a very public climbdown by the company,” Peter
Bright writes for Ars
Technica.

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“But to commemorate New Coke's newfound pop culture relevance, Coca-Cola is going to sell 500,000 cans of New Coke as a Stranger Things tie-in,” he
continues.

Coca-Cola yesterday tweeted a scene from the show featuring two
characters toasting each other with New Cokes in a movie theater. It wrote: “Everyone: I don’t think Stranger Things can get any more 80’s. Stranger Things: Hold my New Coke…
#StrangerThings3 #Enjoy.”

New Coke, in fact, ranked No. 9 on a 24/7 Wall St.compendium of the 100 top product launch blunders throughout history that was
published last month.

“Over the 15 years leading up to 1985, Coca-Cola’s flagship cola drink had been losing market share to Pepsi Cola. To compete, the
company changed the drink’s formula for the first time in 99 years -- but the move today is considered one of the greatest flops of all time. New Coke was met with public outrage and lasted only
a few months. The company reintroduced its older formula, rebranded as Coca-Cola Classic,” wrote Michael B. Sauter, Evan Comen, Thomas C. Frohlich and Samuel Stebbins.

(No. 1 on the 24/7 Wall St. list
of bombs was the 2012 introduction of Google Glass. X, Google-parent Alphabet’s moonshot factory, never gave up,
however, and earlier this week it announced Glass Enterprise
Edition.)

“Coca-Cola executives said the soda company hasn’t paid Netflix for product placement but has provided products for the show’s use. In preparation for
the thriller’s third season, executives invited the crew to visit Coca-Cola’s Atlanta archives to study New Coke packaging, memorabilia and ads. Coke will pay a licensing fee to sell
bottles and cans of regular Coke and Coke Zero Sugar carrying the ‘Stranger Things’ logo,” Jennifer Maloney reports for
the Wall Street Journal.

“We are not taking any money for this,” Barry Smyth, Netflix’s head of global partner marketing, tells Maloney about on the
placement. Nor will there be any vintage ads featuring New
Coke’s pitchman, Bill Cosby, who is serving time for sexually assaulting a woman in 2004.

“The 12-ounce cans of New
Coke, made from the same recipe that sparked the 1985 revolt, will go on sale at 5 p.m. ET [Thursday] at cokestore.com. They'll be part of a bundle when shoppers buy at least two
limited-edition ‘Stranger Things’ Coca-Cola or Coke Zero Sugar eight-ounce glass bottles,” Zlati Meyer writes
for USA Today.

“Free cans of New Coke will also be available for a limited time via an upside-down ‘Stranger Things’-inspired vending machine in
select cities, starting Thursday in New York. And people who buy a ticket or gift at the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta on certain days during the week of June 3 will have a chance to get New Coke cans
as a gift, while supplies last,” Meyer adds.

“The return of the failed drink comes as Netflix ramps up its corporate partnerships and merchandising deals in an effort
to recruit even more people to the streaming service, which has 149 million paid subscribers worldwide. Netflix said it had reached agreements with roughly 75 brands to spread the word about one of
its biggest hits,” John Koblin writes for
the New York Times.

“Because of the new push, which rivals the campaigns for summertime blockbusters, ‘Stranger Things’ may be hard to avoid in the
coming weeks. H&M and other retailers will sell clothes that replicate what the show’s characters wear. Baskin-Robbins will serve new flavors referencing the program’s Scoops Ahoy ice
cream parlor,” Koblin adds. “The more aggressive promotional strategy gives the streaming service a way to market its wares and generate a new revenue stream that doesn’t involve
interrupting its shows with commercials.”